"Is that dough ?"
"You'll make Coloured bread ?"
That was my daily help asking ,after I used 6 utensils and lids to prove the dough. Yup, I pay her a lot of money, because I hate doing dishes. And well, my sink is always overflowing.
So I indulge her and often feed her cake...I don't want her taking too many days off and stuff.
So well, Magic.
I'm a believer. In magic and in the power of colors and the happiness they spread.
When my bagels came out of the oven... I was so Happy, I was jumping.
And doing those dreadful jumping jacks. Now mind you, I'd never do them out of the gym ,or even in it. If I can help it.
There was no one home...
So I had to wait for sweet child to come home from school, wet and tired.... and one look and he thought his mom had gone Loco.
Right , that's the new expression of cool here... "LOCO!" ,Only reserved for me ,OK.He was happy to see them too... but reserved his excitement for the Chai spice flavored NanKhatai .
I generally do Marathons, people.
Baking Marathons !
OK ,back to colors. I've been meaning to do a different bread for days now. And then I saw a reference to Scott Rossillo and his Rainbow Bagels that I'd seen before. So I tried out Steve's Kitchen's recipe. Very similar to my bagels ... only there's no sugar. We don't want to caramelize and brown them ,right?
OK...
So a little simple.
A lot of patience. And some cream cheese frosting with sprinkles. We're nutella people here... and trying to avoid calories like the plague. So it was only cream cheese and sprinkles.
But if you aren't fighting the battle of the bulge... feel free to whip up some cream cheese frosting and indulge.
You may use a stand mixer,but it was two extra utensils. I could have kneaded on the worktop.
What is essential is a small weighing scale.
If you are really interested in baking, then invest in a small scale.
And colours. Wilton or Americolor. Light on kneading, they just pop out on baking.
For the
Rainbow Bagels - How to make Bagels and create Magic with your hands
You need
900 gms plain flour
4 tsp instant dry yeast
2 tsp salt +2 tsp extra
600-650 mils tepid water
6 gel food colours
Oil to grease bowls
If you don't have a scale yet, take one kg flour or maida. Remove 12 tbsp to make 900 gms maida.
Place your flour in the bowl, add the yeast on one side and 2 tsp of salt on the other side.
Slowly add in most of the water and knead till almost together.
Now get out your weighing scale and measure 6 equal parts.
Cover the remaining parts and dab the first with yellow . I used lemon yellow. Start with light color first and then go to dark... use your bench scraper to keep the dough together.
So now knead ,stretch ,fold and some more to get an elastic dough that can pass the window pane test. Ok, this is super speed... I'm slower at kneading.
Just stretch a small portion of dough and if it can stretch without breaking and you can pull to a thin almost window pane like translucent film...you are fabulous. In an oiled bowl. That's all the oil we use.
Do that with all 6 and cover and set aside to proof half an hour. Color... lemon yellow, golden yellow, no taste red, kelly green ,royal blue and violet. Use any color you want....
After half an hour, they're ready to use...oh Mumbai and my kitchen is around 32C . So you may need to wait a while longer.Place a large pot of water to boil and add the remaining salt.
Remove one color at a time and gently flatten into a rectangle. In the Vibgyor order try and flatten all colors to almost equal sizes and place on top of the last color.
My rectangle was 12 inch by 4 inches.
Like so. Next time, I'm putting Green on top... yellow was everywhere. 
Now using a sharp knife or your bench scraper cut 1 inch off. Twist as you go.
Twist and wrap around your hand. So you ll need a rope of about 5-6 inches and roll to make this donut shape.
Place on parchment paper till the water boils. Repeat to make all bagels. Twist the dough to get all colors. I got 15 bagels. You can make bigger ones by cutting the dough rope wider.
Once the water comes to a rolling boil ,pop in two -three at a time and poach each bagel 30 seconds on one side and flip.
This is from an old post as I was working alone and couldn't take too many pics.
Bring onto wire rack.Repeat for all bagels.
Preheat oven to 190C.
Place the bagels on parchment paper or on an oiled cookie sheet and bake 12 minutes.
Flip the tray around and give them a couple of minutes more.
They won't brown so easily because we poached them in a salty liquid.
For once this bagel of beauty brings such joy...
So what are you baking today???
